Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus Saturday live review by Rob Johnson
Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus is Sheffield’s newest festival currently celebrating its second year by championing the heritage of Sheffield itself. By choosing Richard Hawley and Milburn as headliners, the festival has leaned into Sheffield’s musical heritage. It’ll be interesting to see where the festival organisers go with this next year.
We arrive at Don Valley Bowl in glorious South Yorkshire sunshine and are met with one of the most beautiful sights anyone could hope to see in a festival VIP area. I’m talking, of course, about the Greggs bus. Free food, free drink, all day. There are sausage rolls everywhere.
With everything in place for a great day of music, The Ks kick things off in typically enthusiastic style with lead singer James Boyle in incredible voice and the band in rip-roaring form behind him. Tracks such as ‘Chancer’ and ‘Hometown’ are destined to become festival favourites but it is set closer ‘Sarajevo’ that really gets the crowd going (via a well-received cover of ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’.)
Next up is The Rifles. An act who in my head are still up-and-comers but who are in reality festival veterans by this point. The band play a mixture of new songs and old favourites with ‘Peace and Quiet’, ‘Local Boy’ and set closer ‘Romeo and Julie’ providing the highlights before guitarist Lucas Crowther quips that it used to be Milburn supporting The Rifles and not the other way around.
The sizeable crowd are treated to a high-wire act and an aerial show in between sets and this provides the backdrop to Peter Doherty’s incredible set that sees an aerial hoopist cavorting around in the background as one of the UK’s most beloved singer-songwriters does his thing. It’s a career-spanning set that takes in Babyshambles, The Libertines and even an exhilarating cover of Oasis classic ‘Bring it on Down’. Pete is on good form throughout and tracks such as ‘What a Waster’ and ‘The Boy Looked at Johnny’ lose none of their visceral power for being performed on an acoustic guitar. ‘Don’t Look Back into the Sun’ closes things out as the sun sets outside. It’s a moment.
Jake Bugg has none of Doherty’s easy charm when interacting with the crowd but he has become an incendiary live performer over the years and he rattles through his set here with a fire in his belly that I haven’t seen from him before. It’s easy to forget just how many good songs Bugg has put his name to over the years and from the first notes of ‘Simple as This’ through to the final chorus of ‘All I Need’, Bugg has the crowd eating out of his hand. ‘Trouble Town’, ‘Slumville Sunrise’ and ‘Taste It’ sound massive echoing around a huge circus tent and even during the tender moments, ‘Broken’ particularly, Bugg inspires pin-drop silence.
As much as all the music has gone down well, it is clear by the time that Milburn takes the stage what everyone is here for. It’s a uniquely Sheffield thing for a band to inspire such loyalty with local legends Hawley, The Reytons and Reverend and the Makers also capable of drawing massive crowds in the city and Joe Carnall and co seem genuinely touched by their adoring reception.
Traditional set opener ‘Well Well Well’ sets the tone and the momentum only builds from there with ‘Showroom’ and comeback track ‘Midnight Control’ going down a storm. ‘What About Next Time’ has always been a favourite of mine, any track that has a singable guitar riff is alright by me, and it sounds glorious here before the one-two of ‘Lipstick Licking’ and ‘Cheshire Cat Smile’ has everyone going nuts. ‘Take Me Home’ segues into a cover of Thin Lizzy’s ‘Cowboy Song’ before ‘What Will You Do (When the Money Goes)?’ closes out the first part of the set.
The band returns to the stage for the mass singalong that is ‘Roll Out the Barrel’ (Sheffield is in fine voice) before ‘What You Could’ve Won’ brings the curtain down. The latter is one of those songs that everyone should see played live at some point in their lives. All the pre-gig chatter was about the Oasis reunion… well this song is Sheffield’s ‘Live Forever’. The kind of song that soundtracks entire relationships. In short, a classic.
And with that, with one last fleeting glance at the Greggs bus, the time has come to depart. In its second year, Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus has only grown in stature. Here’s to next year.
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